Two restaurant workers have admitted they abandoned a drunk woman at a roadside miles away from her home in the early hours of the morning but have both denied raping her.

The woman, who cannot be named, has told jurors she was attacked by two strangers after she got into what she believed was an unlicensed taxi after drinking in Sunderland city centre in April 2016.

Najirul Miah pictured outside Newcastle Crown Court.

Prosecutors claim driver Syed Ahmed, 21, and passenger Najirul Miah, 20, used her as a "piece of meat" before she was "discarded on the ground like a piece of trash."

Both men have now given evidence in the trial at Newcastle Crown Court and told jurors it was the alleged victim who offered to perform sex acts in exchange for a life home.

They claim the woman consented to be intimate with each of them in turn, inside the vehicle, at a deserted area in Hendon, but admit they drove off and left her, miles in the opposite direction to where she lived.

Ahmed denied he and his pal were lurking in the city in the early hours, in his silver motor with tinted windows, to pick up vulnerable women and said they had hung around after being at a night club simply to "socialise".

Ahmed said the alleged victim had approached his car and asked for a lift, which he initially, repeatedly, refused.

He told jurors: "I agreed when she said she would offer £25 for a lift home.

"It sounded like a good idea, easy money. It was really worth it, I was young, the money sounded really good so I accepted."

Ahmed said the woman offered to pay with sexual services when she realised she did not have enough cash in her handbag.

He told the court: "Within about two minutes she said she had not money, which was when I pulled over, on the main, busy street.

"At that time I felt like I had been tricked and asked her to get out of my car.

"When I asked her to get out of the car she shook her handbag and I could hear loose change."